It's Jan. 7, 2022, the first Friday of the New Year, and the day of the week when I reprise quotations intended to be uplifting or elucidating. Today's come from erstwhile New York Times columnist and thwarted Oregon gubernatorial candidate Nicholas Kristof.
As I've noted previously, self-awareness is not a trait normally associated with modern U.S. politicians, or would-be politicians. Sometimes we must listen to these people carefully, however, because they often reveal themselves.
On Feb. 14, 1859, Oregon became the 33rd state in the Union -- or, rather, in what two years later would be a house divided. Its state constitution had been written over a month's time in the autumn of 1857 and passed comfortably by Oregon's eligible voters, which meant white males. The regional issue of paramount interest was whether the capital should remain in Salem; the overriding national issue was race.
In the end, Oregon was admitted as "a free state," which meant that its constitution barred slavery. But in a separate referendum measure on the same ballot, voters also precluded free blacks from moving to Oregon. It was a barrier that infuriated abolitionist Republicans, just as the anti-slavery provision alienated many Democrats. Nonetheless, it passed the U.S. Senate easily and, on a 114-108 vote, the House approved the measure on Abraham Lincoln's birthday in 1859. Two days later, President Buchanan made it official.
Like Nicholas Kristof, Oregon's first governor was a Democrat. He was called "Honest John" Whiteaker. This proud moniker stemmed from his reputation for fiscal probity, not some overarching morality. "Honest John" was a pro-slavery apologist and an unrepentant racist, and a reminder to always view the press notices of famous personages with skepticism.
Nicknames are not routinely given out in American politics anymore, but if they were, the former New York Times star might be "Smart Nick" Kristof. At Oregon's Yamhill Carlton High School in 1977, he was student body president and editor of the school newspaper. After taking a gap year, he entered Harvard University in the autumn of 1978.
"I liked the idea of going to a famous snob college in the East, and Harvard liked the idea of getting a country hick from Oregon," Kristof once told the Harvard Crimson. He was never "a hick," of course. He was the intellectually precocious son of two erudite and cosmopolitan Portland State University professors who'd purchased a boutique farm 30 miles southwest of Portland. In any event, Kristof graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard in only three years, became a Rhodes scholar, and at the tender age of 25 was hired by Abe Rosenthal to write for the Times, where he has won two Pulitzer Prizes.
As a foreign correspondent and later a columnist, Kristof distinguished himself for physical bravery evidenced by a willingness to visit war zones and an abiding concern for the human rights and suffering of those living in impoverished places or under ruthless dictatorships. CNN legal analyst and former Harvard Crimson colleague Jeffrey Toobin has called Kristof "the moral conscience of our generation of journalists."
For the past 10 years, a few of us have viewed the acclaimed Times journalist in a different light, however. In 2002, Kristof was instrumental in stoking a lynch mob mentality against a private citizen whom the columnist identified as a likely suspect in the deadly anthrax attacks that killed several people and targeted key members of Congress. The innocent man, Steven Hatfill, was ultimately exonerated and paid a handsome settlement by the Justice Department and some media outlets. Hatfill's lawsuit against the New York Times was dismissed for the Catch-22 reason that he was by then (thanks to the newspaper) a public figure. As I wrote in 2011, an FBI supervisor investigating the case, Robert Roth, placed Kristof's more outlandish statements on a wall in the Washington field office. To buck up his agents, Roth added a statement of his own: "One of the best things that can happen to you is to have this type of person criticize you."
Ultimately, Kristof delivered a half-assed public apology to Hatfill, which was more than Robert Mueller, who was in charge of the operation, ever did. And anyway, it's unfair to judge a man who's written for 35 years solely on two or three of his worst columns, so I endeavored to keep an open mind when Nick Kristof announced last October that he was leaving the Times to run for governor of Oregon as a Democrat.
Early media coverage focused on whether Kristof was qualified for such a job, never having been active in Democratic politics or held elective office of any kind. Oregon election officials were focused on a more specific aspect of his candidacy: Was he even eligible to run?
The answer is apparently no. At 62, Kristof has lived in the state for a total of seven or eight years. That would certainly be enough -- if it were more recent. Although his campaign literature was vague on this point, the facts seem to me that Kristof was born in Chicago, moved to Oregon in 1971 at age 12 and left for Harvard in the fall of 1978. Although he visits Oregon regularly and clearly has an affinity for his family's farm, he resides in New York, pays taxes there, holds a New York driver's license, and has voted in New York as recently as 2020.
And that's the rub. A great deal of passion accompanied the writing of Oregon's state constitution in 1857, but one provision never seems to have generated controversy. Under Section 2, which covers qualifications for governor, is the following passage:
"No person except a citizen of the United States, shall be eligible to the Office of Governor, nor shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, and who shall not have been three years next preceding his election, a resident within this State."
And so, in a statement Thursday, Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, a fellow Democrat, dutifully disqualified Kristof from the ballot.
"The rules are the rules and they apply equally to all candidates for office in Oregon," Fagan's statement said. "I stand by the determination of the experts in the Oregon Elections Division that Mr. Kristof does not currently meet the Constitutional requirements to run or serve as Oregon Governor."
In response, Kristof lashed out at Fagan and vowed to appeal. "A failing political establishment in Oregon has chosen to protect itself, rather than give voters a choice," he tweeted. "We will challenge this decision in court, and we are confident we will prevail, because the law is on our side."
I'm not sure what law that would be, and in any event, the disqualified candidate may have said something more on point in a farewell statement to his readers.
"I've gotten to know presidents and tyrants, Nobel laureates and warlords, while visiting 160 countries," Kristof wrote. "And precisely because I have a great job, outstanding editors and the best readers, I may be an idiot to leave."
And that's our quote of the week.
Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon.
